BACKGROUND: Women in leadership in obstetrics and gynaecology in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have historically been underrepresented, despite forming a significant portion of the workforce. This study extends prior research from 2017, examining shifts in gender representation, attitudes, and perceived leadership barriers within the specialty.
OBJECTIVE: The study aims to evaluate changes in gender diversity among leadership positions in the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) and accredited training hospitals since 2017. Additionally, it seeks to understand current attitudes toward leadership and identify perceived barriers among RANZCOG consultants and trainees.
METHODS: A cross-sectional approach was employed, utilising publicly available information, a survey distributed to RANZCOG members, and data from accredited training hospitals. Gender representation in leadership positions was analysed, and survey responses were collected from consultants and trainees to evaluate attitudes and perceived barriers.
RESULTS: The study reveals an increase in women\'s representation in RANZCOG leadership, particularly on the council and in clinical leadership positions. While the proportion of women trainees remained stable, there was a noteworthy increase in women specialists. Survey responses revealed shared perceptions on leadership qualities but diverged on barriers, with more women expressing concerns about skillsets, caring responsibilities, and mentorship support.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings underscore substantial progress in achieving gender equity in obstetrics and gynaecology leadership roles, attributed to RANZCOG initiatives, societal changes, and improved policies. Ongoing efforts, including structured mentorship and flexible arrangements, are recommended to sustain and further enhance gender representation and address specific barriers identified by women in the specialty.

While the persisting issue of women\'s underrepresentation in political news partly arises from biases in the social reality, journalism plays a crucial role in mediating these biases. This study proposes a multilayered framework of gendered influences in journalistic news production to understand how journalistic factors exacerbate or mitigate women\'s media representation. Drawing from a mixed-methods design (content analysis, survey, interviews), journalists\' own gender emerges as the strongest predictor of gendered representations. Women\'s underrepresentation is also influenced by professional roles but not by organizations\' gender guidelines. We explore how journalists perceive these influences and discuss conceptual and practical implications.

BACKGROUND: Digital health research plays a vital role in advancing equitable health care. The diversity of research teams is thereby instrumental in capturing societal challenges, increasing productivity, and reducing bias in algorithms. Despite its importance, the gender distribution within digital health authorship remains largely unexplored.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the gender distribution among first and last authors in digital health research, thereby identifying predicting factors of female authorship.
METHODS: This bibliometric analysis examined the gender distribution across 59,980 publications from 1999 to 2023, spanning 42 digital health journals indexed in the Web of Science. To identify strategies ensuring equality in research, a detailed comparison of gender representation in JMIR journals was conducted within the field, as well as against a matched sample. Two-tailed Welch 2-sample t tests, Wilcoxon rank sum tests, and chi-square tests were used to assess differences. In addition, odds ratios were calculated to identify predictors of female authorship.
RESULTS: The analysis revealed that 37% of first authors and 30% of last authors in digital health were female. JMIR journals demonstrated a higher representation, with 49% of first authors and 38% of last authors being female, yielding odds ratios of 1.96 (95% CI 1.90-2.03; P<.001) and 1.78 (95% CI 1.71-1.84; P<.001), respectively. Since 2008, JMIR journals have consistently featured a greater proportion of female first authors than male counterparts. Other factors that predicted female authorship included having female authors in other relevant positions and gender discordance, given the higher rate of male last authors in the field.
CONCLUSIONS: There was an evident shift toward gender parity across publications in digital health, particularly from the publisher JMIR Publications. The specialized focus of its sister journals, equitable editorial policies, and transparency in the review process might contribute to these achievements. Further research is imperative to establish causality, enabling the replication of these successful strategies across other scientific fields to bridge the gender gap in digital health effectively.

BACKGROUND: Recently, there has been an increase in the representation of women within the cardiothoracic surgery workforce, with discussions about gender equity garnering interest. We sought to identify whether this increase is accompanied by commensurate selection for representation at national meetings.
METHODS: Online archives of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Annual Meetings were reviewed from 2015 to 2024. Data regarding the moderator\'s gender were abstracted. The gender distribution of moderators across the various session categories was surveyed, and subgroup analyses were performed.
RESULTS: During the years of study, the STS Annual Meeting Taskforce selected 983 moderators to participate in the conference, including 218 women. The representation of women moderators demonstrated a favorable, upward trend. In 2015, 12.1% of moderators were women, with a consistent rate from 2015 to 2018. There was a noticeable rise in invited women moderators in 2019, with 25.4% of moderators being women. This proportion increased to 36.9% women in 2024. General Thoracic sessions have consistently included a greater percentage of women moderators compared with other sessions. Other topic areas, such as Education and Quality Improvement and Critical Care, transitioned to greater representation of women in recent years.
CONCLUSIONS: There has been an increase over time in women moderators selected for participation in the STS Annual Meeting, with progress in gender diversity seen in most session types. Although the overall proportion of women within cardiothoracic surgery remains low, the STS has increasingly worked toward encouraging inclusivity. Efforts to further support well-rounded representation are of important benefit.

BACKGROUND: Gender representation trends at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) Annual Meetings and the effect of the 2018 \'We R SAGES\' initiatives are unknown. We assessed gender trends in oral presentations at the SAGES Annual Meeting between 2012 and 2022 with a focus on assessing the impact of the 2018 initiatives.
METHODS: Abstracts selected for oral presentations from 2012 to 2022 were reviewed for presenter and first, second, and senior author gender. Gender was categorized as woman, man, or unknown using public professional profiles. Subsequent publications were identified using search engines. The primary outcome was the temporal trend of proportion of women in each role using interrupted time series analysis. Secondary outcomes included publication rates based on first and senior author genders in 2012-2018 versus 2019-2022.
RESULTS: 1605 abstracts were reviewed. The proportion of women increased linearly in all categories: presenter (2.4%/year, R2 = 0.91), first author (2.4%/year, R2 = 0.90), senior author (2%/year, R2 = 0.65), and overall (2.2%, R2 = 0.91), (p < 0.01 for all). Prior to 2018, the proportion of women increased annually for presenters (coefficient: 0.026, 95% CI [0.016, 0.037], p = 0.002) and first authors (coefficient: 0.026, 95% CI [0.016, 0.037], p = 0.002), but there was no significant increase after 2018 (p > 0.05). Female second author proportion increased annually prior to 2018 (coefficient: 0.012, 95% CI [0.003, 0.021], p = 0.042) and increased by 0.139 (95% CI [0.070, 0.208], p = 0.006) in 2018. Annual female senior author proportion did not significantly change after 2018 (p > 0.05). 1198 (75.2%) abstracts led to publications. Women were as likely as men to be first (79% vs 77%, p = 0.284) or senior author (79% vs 77%, p = 0.702) in abstracts culminating in publications. There was no difference in woman first author publication rate before and after 2018 (80% vs 79%, p = 1.000), but woman senior author publication rate increased after 2018 (71% vs 83%, p = 0.032).
CONCLUSIONS: There was an upward trend in women surgeons\' presentations and associated publications in the SAGES Annual Meetings over the last decade.

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In many languages with grammatical gender, the use of masculine forms as a generic reference has been associated with a bias favoring masculine-specific representations. This article examines the efficiency of gender-fair forms, specifically gender-unmarked forms (neutralization strategy, e.g., \"l\'enfant\") and contracted double forms (re-feminization strategy, e.g., \"un·e enfant\"), in reducing gender biases in language. Extensive empirical research has shown that gender-fair forms have the potential to promote more gender-balanced representations. However, the relative efficiency of these strategies remains a subject of debate in the scientific literature. In order to explore these questions, two experiments were conducted in French. We analyzed the response times and percent correct scores using a sentence evaluation paradigm, where the participants had to decide whether a second sentence starting with a gendered personal pronoun (\"il\" or \"elle\") was a sensible continuation of the first sentence written in a gender-fair form. Experiment 1 confirmed that gender-unmarked forms are not fully effective in neutralizing the masculine bias. In Experiment 2, a comparison was made between gender-unmarked forms and contracted double forms, to assess their respective abilities to generate more balanced representations. The findings indicated that contracted double forms are more effective in promoting gender balance compared to gender-unmarked forms. This study contributes to the existing scientific literature by shedding light on the relative efficiency of neutralization and re-feminization strategies in reducing gender biases in language. These results have implications for informing efforts to promote more inclusive and unbiased language practices.

Recruitment efforts have demonstrated small increases in female and under-represented applicants in recent years; however, the majority of surgical programs remain predominantly Caucasian and male. With increased national emphasis on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives and mentoring programs, applicants to surgical specialties have continued to increase. While strategies to improve gender and racial diversity are now openly discussed, it is unclear if we have seen significant improvement. We sought to analyze the gender and diversity trends between surgical specialties.
Publicly available data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, National Board of Medical Examiners, and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education were extracted to determine total number, gender, and diversity of surgery applicants and active residents from the years 2018 to 2021. Surgical specialties within the main match were compared through an analysis completed through Microsoft Excel.
Between the years from 2018 to 2021, there was a rise in diversity representation among all surgical residents except for orthopedics which remained less than 30%. Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, and Thoracic Integrated training programs have the lowest rates of female representation among current residents at 16.72%, 20.37%, and 30.05%, respectively. General surgery demonstrates the greatest increase of female residents with a positive 6% change over this recent four-year time period.
There has been minimal positive progress in gender and diversity representation in surgical subspecialties overall in recent years. Continued advocacy through mentorship and scholarship programs is recommended to achieve greater gender and diversity representation in general surgery and surgical subspecialties.

Introduction Diversity and inclusion in cardiovascular fellowships are necessary for addressing the healthcare needs of diverse patient populations. However, regional disparities in the diversity of these programs persist, diminishing efforts to create a representative workforce. We observe the regional differences in the diversity of cardiovascular fellowship programs, focusing on gender, doctorate designation, and graduation within the United States (US) or other. We hypothesized that males, medical doctors (MD), and US graduates would be in majority across all regions. Methods Data for cardiovascular fellowships from the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Database Access (FREIDA) system for the matriculation year 2022-2023 was obtained to assess the representation of male vs female gender, MD vs osteopathic doctor (DO) designation, and US vs non-US graduate. We then compared these backgrounds to five defined regions (Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and West) in the United States to define representation for backgrounds across geographic areas. Statistical significance was determined by p<0.05 with the use of SAS Studio 3.8, version 9.4 (Cary, NC: SAS Institute, Inc.), and Wilson score for confidence intervals. Results We found significant disparities across all background factors for all regions. This includes that females, DOs, and non-US graduates were underrepresented among Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and West regions, and the p-value was <0.001 for all variations. Specifically for Midwest, the female frequency was 155 (23.81%; CI: 21, 27; p<0.001), DO frequency was 101 (15.51%; CI: 13, 19; p<0.001), and non-US graduate frequency was 206 (31.84%; CI: 28, 36; p<0.001). For Northeast, the female frequency was 231 (29.62; CI: 27, 33; p<0.001), DO frequency was 72 (9.22; CI: 7, 11; p<0.001), and non-US graduate frequency was 239 (30.68; CI 28, 34; p<0.001). For Southeast, the female frequency was 178 (25.99; CI: 23, 29; p<0.001), DO frequency was 67 (9.78; CI: 8, 12; p<0.001), and non-US graduate frequency 279 (41.46; CI: 38, 45; p<0.001). For Southwest, the female frequency was 74 (26.71; CI: 22, 32; p<0.001), DO frequency was 21 (7.58; CI 5, 11; p<0.001), and non-US graduate frequency was 110 (39.71; CI: 34,46; p<0.001). For West, the female frequency was 107 (31.75; CI 27, 37; p<0.001), DO frequency was 15 (4.45; CI: 3, 7; p<0.001), and non-US graduate frequency was 54 (16.07; CI: 13, 20; p<0.001). Conclusion We emphasize the regional disparities for females, DOs, and non-US graduates within cardiovascular fellowships in the past matriculation year. Understanding that we have not reached diversity goals allows for further reflection and implementation of targeted interventions and initiatives aimed at promoting equal opportunities for applicants. This is true for all regions of the United States. By addressing these disparities, fellowship programs can more effectively mirror the diverse patient populations they serve and foster a healthcare environment that is inclusive and accommodating. This, in turn, contributes to the overall enhancement of healthcare outcomes.

Introduction An invitation to speak at grand rounds (GR) is considered an honor and an activity important for academic promotion. The aim of this study was to determine the representation of women among invited speakers at departmental GR and assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on it. Methods We conducted a retrospective descriptive study on gender differences in all GR speakers between January 2019 and June 2021 at an academic health system in Western Massachusetts. We calculated the overall percentage of women presenters and compared it with the percentage of women faculty at our institution and nationally. To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on this association, we calculated the absolute percentage difference between women and men speakers using the date of March 13, 2020, as the cut-off and conducted a sensitivity analysis using June 15, 2020, as the cut-off. Results During the study period, 46% (276/607) of GR speakers at our institution were women. This percentage reflected the percentage of the women faculty overall at our institution and was similar to women\'s representation among faculty nationally. Departments with high percentages of women faculty (Obstetrics and Gynecology, 76%; Pediatrics, 65%) had high percentages of women GR speakers (Obstetrics and Gynecology, 70%; Pediatrics, 51%; Psychiatry, 62%). COVID-19 did not appear to significantly influence gender representation among speakers. Conclusion At our institution, less than half of the GR speakers were women. However, this percentage appears to reflect the overall percentage of women faculty. Potential barriers and opportunities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic did not appear to impact this finding.